Hello Interwebs!
Today is the first day of August and it's time for my July wrap-up. In the month of July I read seven books, a couple of which got me out of my wheelhouse. All of which I enjoyed. I read two sci-fi, one cozy mystery, three horror, and one thriller. I read a total of 2,389 pages for an average rating of 4.3 stars out of 5.
1. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarer #1): this is a sci-fi novel that I picked up from the library that I heard compared to things like the show Firefly, which I absolutely adore. I think I'd call this a kind of cozy sci-fi since it's more focused on the characters rather than the actual overarching plot. That being said I really, really liked this book and I'm not at all a sci-fi reader typically. Before I'd even finished this I had ordered the whole series off Amazon with some of my birthday money. I read this book from June 29th to July 10th and gave it a 4.75 out of 5 star rating.
2. The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton (A Scottish Bookshop Mystery #1): this is a cozy mystery that my mother read and lent to me when they were in town for my birthday. I picked it up while I was waiting for the second wayfarer book to come available and just plowed through it in about a day while I was on my little staycation from work. This follows a young woman who goes to work in an eccentric bookshop in Scotland and ends up involved in the investigation into her boss's sister. I gave this an enjoyable 3.5 stars and read it from July 10-11th.
3. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarer #2): this is the second book in the Wayfarer series and you follow a couple side characters from the first book. One is an AI newly implanted in a body and coming to terms with that and the other is the mechanic who is taking care of her. It's a dual timeline book with the present between those two characters and the past where you are learning the story of the mechanic and her partner. I also gave this one a 4.75 out of 5 stars and read it from July 11th to the 15th.
4. Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare (Clown in a Cornfield #1): this is a new favorite for me. This was my first Summerween book to fulfill the prompt, read a slasher. This follows a teenage girl who just moved to a small town and falls in with a group of fellow teens just in time to get thrown into her own slasher movie at a party hunted by people dressed as the town's creepy clown mascot. This book has a full review on one of my Summerween posts. I ended up giving this book a full 5 star rating and read it in almost one sitting from July 15th to the 16th to kick off Summerween.
5. The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates: this was my second Summerween pick read a book with "haunt" in the title. You follow a young woman who is house sitting in this creepy house while the owners are on vacation. The house ends up having a dark, haunted past that involves cults. I really enjoyed this and listened to it on audio which helped it also fulfill the prompt to read a book in the dark. I listened to it from July 21st to 22nd and gave it 3.75 stars.
6. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix: this was the book I chose to replace another for my read a book with Halloween colors on the cover. This follows a group of woman in the south in the 80s/90s as they discover their neighbor man is a vampire intent on hurting their children and destroying their community. This book was a lot of fun, a great mix between comedy and horror and I really, really enjoyed it. This book gives off nothing but summer vibes with the peaches on the cover and the southern gothic setting. I gave this a 4.25 out of 5 stars adn read it from July 17th to the 23rd.
7. The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager: this was The Book Troop pick for July and was my fourth Riley Sager thriller. This follows an actress named Casey who is secluded at her family's lake house in the fall while suffering from alcoholism following her husband's drowning death the previous year. She ends befriending the ex-model across the lake and watching her and husband with some binoculars. She ends up in a tangled web that involves a possible poisoning, a suspected serial killer, ghosts and the drowning of her own husband. This book was a wild, wild ride. The first 2/3 of it was pretty slow and predictable much in the fashion of The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window but then when the plot twists started, they just kept coming. I enjoyed this overall and gave it a 3.75 out of 5 star rating and read it from July 23rd to July 31st.
Happy Reading,
Richelle
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